Wednesday

The $6.2 million project will include doubling the size of the emergency department from 6,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet. It will add nine additional beds, so the department will have 19.

The first portion of the project will begin in mid-to-late April, according to a release. Renovations then will include an expansion of the lobby area with new offices for emergency department personnel and a new entrance for Reno County EMS vehicles.

During the first phase, the Intensive Care Unit will move to the hospital’s fourth floor for about six weeks. For a few weekends, the emergency department will be relocated to the Same Day Surgery Center on the opposite end of the hospital.

The parking area adjacent to the emergency department will be relocated, so patients and visitors to the emergency department, ICU and outpatient services should park in the lot south and west of the main entrance.

Signs on the hospital’s campus will alert patients and families of any changes.

Also included in the remodel are converting a portion of the ambulance garage to additional emergency department exam rooms. The project is slated for completion in late January 2015.

After the groundbreaking ceremony, public officials and community members got a tour of facilities that have already been remodeled, which include inpatient rehab, outpatient infusion, outpatient rehab and the wound and hyperbaric center.

The wound and hyperbaric center now has five rooms and two hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, which enhances healing. Patients are enclosed in the chamber, where they breathe pure oxygen. It saturates the blood plasma and allows it to carry from 15 to 20 times the normal amount of healing oxygen to body’s tissues.

Patients are in the chamber for about 2˝ hours. Patients who are in the chambers can be treated for wounds that don’t heal within 30 days, skin ulcers, failing grafts and flaps, radiation complications, peripheral arterial insufficiency, abrasions, burns, cellulitis, gangrene, lacerations, lymphedema, malignant wounds, rashes and surgical wounds.

“There are so many dramatic improvements (to patients),” said Tiffany Antonio, program director of the wound and hyperbaric center.

The outpatient rehabilitation on the first floor of the hospital has an open feel, complete with windows and an outside terrace. It has a machine that gives feedback to help patients with sports injuries. Across the hall there is another room that can give more privacy for inpatient physical therapy.

On the fourth floor is inpatient rehabilitation. Larger rooms have lifts that hold up to 600 pounds. Patients can be lifted with a sling so they can move around.

“It’s wonderful,” said Shelli Hines, nursing director of patient care. “We’re very thrilled to have these.”

Patients have a minimum of three hours of therapy a day. A majority of the patients have had strokes, brain trauma or pulmonary distress. Almost everything in the department has a function, including a mirror at the end of the hall where patients can make sure they walk without leaning.

“Our main goal is to get people back home,” said Amy Simpson, program director for inpatient rehabilitation. “They will be cooking, so we teach kitchen safety.”

A special room is set up that includes a makeshift grocery store and a kitchen. Patients go shopping before they make their food. They have to follow all of the simple safety rules, like turning off the stove when they’re finished.

The room has a living area, which includes a basic recliner and couch.

“Imagine you had a hip fracture,” Simpson said. “Getting up could be a big fall risk.”

Patients also practice pushing themselves up from a couch.

On the fifth floor, more chairs have been added to outpatient infusion – or an administration of medicine through a needle or catheter. Most come in for blood thinners or boosters.

Keep up to date with the renovations at the hospital on its website hutchregional.com.

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